Here and Now
by HoldTheTruthForever
Summary: Blythe returns to Downtown City for the first time in six years. It seems that she had completely forgotten about her old friends at 'Littlest Pet Shop'. But they didn't forget, and they wanted to make sure Blythe wouldn't either. These are the videos chronicling the pets' adventures, unity, their pain, their laughs and their memories.
1. Intro Deduction

At age sixteen, Blythe Baxter and her father, Roger Baxter, started a new life in Downtown City. There, her life changed the lives of others forever. She met some rather interesting new friends; both big and small, bare and furry. Blythe made some enemies, but they weren't enough to get her down. She pursued her dream of becoming a clothes designer all throughout High School until the age of eighteen, when she graduated and got accepted into the French fashion university, Esmod.

But she did not forget her friends.

They maintained contact through webcam chats, postcards and phone calls in the like. But between her maturing social life, family and work, Blythe struggled to maintain a healthy relationship with her pet shop friends. Recording video diaries and mailing them to Blythe became more frequent as time grew.

Summer quickly became Blythe's only free time, and she spent it at home with the pets. These visits were relished and well-spent, as if every moment might be their last.

Sadly, it eventually came to that.

At the age of twenty-three, Blythe found her significant other. At the age of twenty-four, she started a family. At the age of twenty-five, the 'Littlest Pet Shop' closed forever. Her busy life made it impossible to come home right away, and it wasn't until she actually _got _home that she realized the severity of the situation, and how the pet shop ended through such tragic and unforeseen events.

At the age of twenty-six, Blythe Baxter returned to Downtown City for the first time in six years. There, her father had all of the videos the pets made burned into a single disc. With great haste, Blythe rushed to the hotel her family was staying at and inserted the disc into her laptop.

* * *

_A red dot appeared in the upper-right hand corner of the screen, beside the word **'REC'**. A symbol of a half-full battery appeared below it. On the opposite side to the battery, a timer starting at zero began its numerical ascent. For the first seven seconds, the picture was static; it eventually clarified into the curvaceous form of Zoe Trent. Or rather, the lower half of her body. _

"Russell? Hon?" she asked with a needy whine to her voice. "Could you be so kind as to help me with this camera?"

"It's on, Zoe," he answered, monotonously.

"Are you sure?"

"Yes."

"How can you tell?"

"...Because I was the one who turned it on?"

Zoe's tail began wagging with enthusiasm. "That's right!" she proclaimed. The canine dropped to all fours, facing the camera. A giddy smile was plastered onto her face; glee seemed to emanate from her vibrant blue eyes. "_Blythe! _How are you?"

"Look, guys!" yelled Vinnie, hidden out of frame, "Zoe thinks that camera is Blythe! She finally lost it!"

Zoe's face grew the brightest shade of red, her once joy-filled face contorted into that of anger; she reached behind the camera and pulled out a squeaky hamburger, which she pelted at the off-screen gecko. A hollow 'thunk' was heard, quickly followed by a pleading, "Hey, cut it out! I'm joshin' ya!"

Zoe dropped the next projectile in her arsenal, a squeaky hammer, and returned her attention to the camera. "As you can see," she said, "Things are about as normal as ever, here in 'Littlest Pet Shop'."

A small chuckle resonated from the pooch. "Anyways, I just wanted to ask how 'F.U.N.' is. I hope you're having a good time right now," she placed a paw on the left side of her mouth, quickly leaned towards the camera and whispered, "because I sure as sugar am not! Pepper has been feeling a bit 'under the weather' for the past few days or so. Why? I'll tell you why! Because the Duke of Doofuses himself, Vinnie Terrio, dared her to eat this moldy half-eaten sandwich he got from the dumpster."

"He said he'd call her a 'girly-girl' for the next one-hundred years if she didn't eat it, and well... you can tell what happened from there." Zoe inhaled deeply through her nose, and then exhaled. "Of course, proper punishment was distributed so Vinnie wouldn't try anything like that in the future."

As if on cue, Vinnie was seen crossing the background behind Zoe in a full-body cast and wheelchair, which was being pushed by Sunil.

"It's nothing you should worry about, though. Just another cah-_razy _day in 'Littlest Pet Shop'. I hope to hear from you soon! Buh-bye, Blythe!"

_The picture made an abrupt cut to black, and then became static, making its transition to the next video. _


	2. Birthday Blech

_The_ screen's_ static slowly dissipated into the enthusiastic face of Vinnie Terrio. Music was heard thumping in the background, the entire day camp was littered with confetti and party favors and Russell was seen stuck to the roof with a piece of duct tape slapped over his mouth. _

Vinnie struggled to keep a straight face when looking at the camera, but his efforts failed as he burst into another hysterical bout of laughter. "Su-Sunil! The cam's on!"

"Really?" the mongoose asked from the sidelines.

"Yeah!"

"Okay, get ready!"

Vinnie returned his attention from the unseen mongoose back to the camera. "Oh-ho-ho man! Blythe, you have _got _to see this! It's gonna b-ha-ha-ha! Oh, man! I'm already laugh-hing!" Vinnie wiped a tear away from his eye and breathed, trying to tame his composure.

"Okay," he began, straight-faced. "Here we go: So, today is Zoe's birthday, right? Practically everyone came to the shop today, by the way. Even that Pom girl made an appearance! But anyway, Buttercream and Sugar Sprinkles brought a dish of brownies to the party, (which were pretty bangin', if I do say so myself). But what _they _didn't know was that dogs can't eat chocolate! Zoe knew this, but now... just, heh, JUST LOOK!"

Before he caught another case of the giggles, Vinnie whipped the camera around to face the bulk of the party. There, it filmed a gathering of all the regular pet shop day campers, along with the 'Sweet Delights' pets and Madame Pom, gathered around Pepper Clarke and Zoe Trent.

Pepper nudged a plate of brownies closer to the quivering canine. "C'mon, Zoe! Just one little bite!"

"Not a chance! I'll get sick!" Zoe outstretched a hind leg and pushed the plate back to her grinning friend.

Buttercream bounced and place and sang, "Do it! Do it! Do it!"

"Yeah, come on Zoe!" cheered Minka, followed by Penny asking, "What's the worst that can happen?"

Pepper grabbed the plate and lifted it to Zoe's face; she turned away from it with her forelegs crossed over her chest. Then before she knew it, every pet in the camp started cheering, "Eat it! Eat it! Eat it! Eat it!"

Vinnie screamed over the chant: "I'LL LET YOU CHEW ON MY DANCE SHOES!"

Zoe finally snapped. "Alright! Fine, I'll do it! Just shut up! All of you!"

The camera turned back to face Vinnie, who was wearing a stupid grin. "She's gonna do it!" he gushed. "Of course, 'ol Rusty immediately hopped aboard the _ban-wagon _when Buttercream and Sprinkles brought the brownies. Sunil and I took care of it, of course."

Vinnie turned his head and looked up at Russell, who was fruitlessly shaking his stubby little legs in an effort to get loose. "Hi Rusty!" Vinnie called up, mockingly.

"MMPH!" he screamed through the duct tape.

Sunil came rushing into the camera's view and grabbed his reptilian friend by the shoulders, "Vinnie, Zoe is going to eat the brownie! Get the recording device ready!"

He ran back to join the group while Vinnie bent over and picked up the camera with much effort. "Yeesh! What are these things made of? It's a flippin' spaceship! Ugh, anyway, here's Zoe about to eat it! Oh man, oh man!"

It took several seconds for the camera's picture to focus, but when it did, it showed the pets leaning in expectantly and chanting _'Eat it, eat it, eat it,'_ in a soft, almost mystifying, murmur.

As the distance between the brownie and Zoe's jittering maw lessened, the pets' chanting grew louder in turn: "Eat it. Eat it! EAT IT!"

When Zoe finally lunged at the brownie and swallowed it in one disgusting bite, the pets cheered like warlords in victory. They all exchanged high-fives and pats on the back with the birthday dog. However, their optimism was replaced with screams of laughter as Zoe's face turned a sickly green.

"Oh my goodness!" cried Sunil. "Vinnie! Are you filming this!?"

"Every second of it, buddy!" Vinnie replied, outstretching a hand from under the camera and giving a thumbs up. Zoe bolted through the throng of pets, off camera, supposedly to a wastepaper basket.

"Jeez!" The gecko turned the camera to face him once again. "As you can see, Blythe, you're really missing out on one heck of a party! But, I guess you're having fun at F.U.N., so that's-,"

"Vinnie!" Sunil called, out of frame. "Zoe completely missed the garbage pail!"

"BWA-HA-HA-HA!" The camera went flying out of Vinnie's hands; from its point of view, the whole room started spinning until it collided with the wall and abruptly cut to static.

* * *

The camera's picture made a quick edit into what looked like some sort of doctor's office, or a surgery room. On the operating table, holding the camera, was Zoe Trent. She had a tired look to her face, which was most likely due to the tube going through her mouth and down her throat. One paw held the camera while the other was protectively laid over a pair of chewed up dance shoes. One simple phrase, muddled up by the tube but not to a drastic extent, was muttered by Zoe as it began sucking out chunks of brownie from her stomach:

"Totally worth it."


End file.
